


for the night

by plinys



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Five Times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 06:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: But Zari isn’t listening to any of them, because Charlie is taking her hand in hers, and kneeling down before a suddenly hushed restaurant - “Zari Adrianna Tomaz, will you make me the happiest woman in the word?”[or: 5 times Charlie and Zari pretend to get engaged!]





	for the night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SheWhoWalksUnseen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWhoWalksUnseen/gifts).

> this fic was commissioned by @scarletscold on twitter! slide by my twitter ( @plinys ) to learn how to commission me!

1

“Fuck, love, you really look like you don’t want to be here.”

“That’s because I don’t.”

They’re all at some downtown bar celebrating Nate and Amaya’s anniversary. 

She insists if anyone asks that it is because she doesn’t like bars, that drinks are expensive, or that the uber back to her place from downtown is always too much. But it’s an excuse - a thin one - because all she has done since they got here is stare across the room at where Nate and Amaya are happy and in love.

That’s the thing with unrequited love, it just hurts and it never stops hurting.

So she’s numbing it with the one drink she was willing to buy, something blue that tastes more like vodka than anything else. 

It’s a work in progress.

She turns away from the happy couple to the woman beside her instead. Amaya’s twin sister, Charlie. They had met once or twice before in passing, back when Zari and Amaya had still been living together.

Amaya once described Charlie as someone who had been going through her  _ rebellious stage  _ for the last twenty-three years. And looking at Charlie, well… Amaya’s assessment hadn’t been off. 

“What to do something crazy,” Charlie asks.

Her fingers are playing with the straw of her drink and Zari’s eyes can’t help but follow the movement.

“I want to leave,” Zari insists, but still she nods her head to tell Charlie to continue.

“Let’s get married!”

Of all the things she had expected Charlie to say, that was not it - “What the fuck?”

“Okay, not for real but,” Charlie pauses, reach out to slide one of Zari’s rings off her fingers - Charlie would make an excellent pick pocket - “I bet I could get us both new drinks, and probably free drinks for the rest of the night, if you let me propose to you.”

“You’re joking…?”

Charlie shakes her head. “Usually John and I do it but he’s off flirting with Larry-“

“Gary?”

“-Not important,” Charlie waves her hand dismissively. “That’s not the point.”

“And what  _ is  _ the point exactly,” Zari asks. 

“Free drinks,” Charlie offers.

As if that explains everything. And well, she has a point. They were all a little broke and a little struggling and the only other way of getting free drinks at a place like this was by flirting with some guy - or reminding Nate that he still owes her twenty dollars - and Zari didn’t want to put in the energy of doing that.

Plus it’s a distraction.

And fuck it if Zari didn’t need a distraction.

Hadn’t been needing one all night...

“Are you sure this will work,” Zari asks, already knowing that she’s going to say yes.

“It’s never failed me before.”

Zari takes one look at the bar, they’ve never been here before, and she supposed that after this their friend group never will be able to again, but free drinks are free drinks.

And when she looks at Charlie there’s this hopeful look on her face, one that reminds her all too well of all those feelings for Amaya that Zari has done her best to push down for years.

It’s a bad idea.

But it isn’t impossible to look at a face that looks identical to  _ Amaya’s  _ and feel love.

“Fuck it,” Zari says, before she can second guess herself, “Yeah, fuck it, I’ll do it.”

Charlie’s face lights up in excitement. “Then let’s get married!” 

She seals the deal by leaning forward to kiss Zari. It’s a quick thing. Not meant as much. Just a brief press. But it catches Zari off guard enough that when Charlie pulls back to shoot her a wild grin there’s shock on Zari’s features.

“Try to act surprised, sweetheart,” Charlie tells her, before promptly pulling away to climb on top of the bar and raising her voice loud about the crowd - “Alright bitches listen up, I’ve got an announcement meant to make!”

(“I didn’t even know that the two of you knew each other,” Amaya says later, her voice soft and concerned. 

“We didn’t.”)

  
  


2

It happens again, because it worked surprisingly well, and they’re at some restaurant all out as the usual group, but this time Charlie is there too.

After their last proposal Charlie had mentioned that she was in the states for a while  _ visiting Amaya  _ for a month or two before she’d eventually head back home. 

Charlie fits in with their group - self proclaimed  _ Legends  _ \- as if she was always meant to be here. 

She takes the seat next to Zari at the restaurant without asking and Zari doesn’t find that she minds all the much.

Especially when Charlie leans against her side and whispers in her ear - “So how do you feel about free cheesecake?”

“We will never be able to come back here again,” Zari objects, “The next neatest Cheesecake Factory is in the burbs.”

“Worth it.”

Zari wants to remind Charlie that she doesn’t have a car to get to the suburbs, that doing this means never getting cheesecake again, or at least not for a long while.

But Charlie is smiling at her with a smile that spells trouble and Zari’s needed a little trouble in her life for a while.

“Fine.”

“I knew you’d see the light, love,” Charlie whispers to her before pushing out her chair dramatically, and using the loudest voice possible. “Excuse me everyone, I have an announcement to make.”

Across the table Amaya shoots them that same worried and disappointed look, while Ava groans - “Oh god, not this again.”

“Why do I have a feeling this won’t be the last time,” Nate says.

“It’s kinda fun,” Sara interjects.

But Zari isn’t listening to any of them, because Charlie is taking her hand in hers, and kneeling down before a suddenly hushed restaurant - “Zari Adrianna Tomaz, will you make me the happiest woman in the word?”

(“How did you know my middle name?”

“I know everything, Z,” Charlie says, before sticking a far too large bite of cheesecake into her mouth. “ _ Everything _ .”)

  
  


3

“I knew from the moment that I met Charlie that she was going to be the girl for me-“ 

The third time they do it, Zari offers to be the one doing the proposing. It’s sort of fun. A rush of so many eyes on her.

They’re at another bar.

The music has stopped, as all eyes are on her.

_ Charlie _ ’s gaze is the most intense of them all.

“-There was something about her. I mean, look at her, she’s beautiful, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the way she smiles, the way her eyes always seem to hold galaxies and I want to do nothing more than get lost in them, the way her hands feel holding mine, keeping me safe even on the darkest of nights.”

She looks at Charlie as she says the words.

Even if there’s someone else whose face she noticed that  _ smile  _ on first. 

Someone else whose eyes she gets lost in every time.

“The second I saw her, I knew I was going to love her for the rest of my life, whether my mind wanted to or not, my heart was already sold from that very first moment, and I-“

She makes a mistake, looks away from Charlie for just a moment. To Amaya instead and…

“I do,” Charlie says, cutting her off, bringing her back to the present. “Yes, come kiss me already, I do.”

There’s applause somewhere in the bar, an offer of drinks, but all Zari can focus on is Charlie, kissing her like they’ve been doing this for years.

Like they’re going to keep doing it for years.

(“Nice words, they weren’t meant for me though,” Charlie points out later.

“I mean, it’s not like the things you say are ever meant for me either…”)

  
  


4

“I think you’re just looking for an excuse to kiss me,” Charlie whispers when they break apart. The words spoken low and close, her lips brushing against Zari’s as she speaks. 

“We have to make it look authentic,” Zari insists. 

It doesn’t matter now.

They’ve already gotten the free drinks and the disapproving looks from most their friends. There’s no reason to keep this up.

And yet.

She’s a little wine drunk, and the loneliness that she’s felt for so long disappears when she’s around Charlie.

Zari pulls Charlie back in for another kiss just because she can.

(“So,” Sara drawls later. Sprawled out on Zari’s floor because she’s too drunk to remember Ava’s address and her phone is dead. “You and Charlie, that’s like a thing now?”

Zari doesn’t know how to answer her so she just shrugs. 

Thankfully Sara has never been the type to press for info - “I bet she’s great at oral.”)

  
  


5

“At least, this is the last time they’re going to be able to do this,” Ava points out.

Zari has been trying not to think about that.

To think about how Charlie is supposed to head back to England soon, her brief stay here in the states finally up. 

She’s going to miss her.

Miss this weird  _ thing  _ that they’ve built between them over the last month.

Their inside jokes.

The free drinks they’ve gotten.

The Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, and the  _ two  _ Chili’s that she can never go back to again.

The way Charlie kisses her like her life depends on it, even if it’s all just for show.

The way Charlie stands up on whatever flat surface she can to call all the attention to her, draws a crowd in so easily, in a way that makes Zari a little bit envious.

This is the last time they’re going to be able to do this.

And for some reason, listening to another one of Charlie’s speeches only makes her heart hurt.

So Zari climbs onto the table with her. Ignoring the eyerolls from the friends that never felt inclined to play along, and cuts off Charlie’s whole speech by loudly saying - “Marry me?”

Charlie’s surprised face is one of the most beautiful sights Zari has ever seen, and her laugh infectious enough that the whole bar is laughing with her a moment later. 

“Isn’t that supposed to be my line,” Charlie asks.

“I’m pretty sure  _ your line _ is supposed to be ‘I do’.”

(“You know, I’m going to miss you.”

“You better, I’m your fake wife after all.”) 

  
  
  


+1 

“Stay,” Zari says.

They’re at the airport.

She’s supposed to be dropping Charlie off, Amaya too busy with work to see her sister off and… To be honest, Zari wouldn’t have felt right not doing this, not after the month they’ve had.

Someone behind them honks, because they’re at the departures zone, because Charlie is supposed to hurry out of the car and away from Zari’s life.

But at Zari’s words Charlie had stopped, had hesitated, and didn’t that mean something? 

“Z-“

“Stay, in the city, with me,” Zari says, quick to get the words out. “I know you can’t stay with Amaya and Nate anymore, but I’ve got a couch or a bed and…”

_ And I think I have feelings for you _ .

_ And I want you to stay. _

There’s so many things Zari wants to put into words, but she just can’t.

She’s never been good at this, the whole feelings thing, but Charlie makes her want to try. 

“I’m not an American citizen, love, I can’t just stay here forever.”

“Then marry me,” Zari says. The first time the words come out without the promise of free food or drinks. “Get a green card and marry me, so that I can date you, so I can fall in love with you properly and mean all the things we’ve spent the last month saying.”

Charlie leans across the seat and kisses her.

And it’s not a yes.

But it’s not a  _ no _ .

(“You know do know helping me apply for a work visa would have been easier than actually marrying me, right?”

“So you’re saying booking a last minute flight to Vegas was a bad idea?”

“I always did want to get married at a Taco Bell.”) 


End file.
